Survival
by bookwormgirlLH
Summary: Lister and Cat are sent to explore an abandoned space station. But when faced with disaster, they are left to battle for their lives when at least one of them may be dying.


It was just meant to be a normal trip out in _Blue Midget. _Somewhat grudgingly, the Cat and Lister had been sent on yet another scouting mission to an abandoned space station not too far away.

Of course, Rimmer - after the usual round of complaints that Cat's don't do work and they were both sick of doing everything around here - had insisted that he would have gone himself, but, given the circumstances, that wasn't possible. Ever since he developed an interesting holo-virus the day before the trip, Rimmer had been unable to leave his bed and hologramatic bucket due to his violent vomiting attacks. When he thought about it, Lister did feel a bit guilty for leaving Kryten in charge of Rimmer when he'd contracted the holographic equivalent of the winter vomiting virus, but he soon remembered that it meant that he didn't have to deal with it. Particularly because Lister always felt so sick whenever anyone vomited, regardless of them being humanoid or holographic - it was still revolting. And anyway, both he and Cat agreed that going on a forty eight hour mission was better than spending time with Rimmer, vomiting or not vomiting.

So because this was such a normal trip, Lister and Cat both spent their time doing what they did best: Lister pined for a curry, and Cat moaned about having forgotten to bring his emergency back-up mirror with him - you know, the usual.

But it was when Cat was piloting and Lister was picking his feet that they became aware of the fact that things might not be going to plan. But, being the idiots they were, it took them rather a long time to actually work out what it was.

"Hey, bud?"

Lister heard the Cat speak, and looked up as he detected the confusion in his voice. Cat, whilst still keeping a firm grip on the controls, began to sniff heavily, turning his head in multiple directions, obviously trying to work out what was aggravating his nose.

"What is it?" Lister asked, getting Cat's attention for a few seconds. But Cat simply looked at him, not providing an answer, before going back to what he was doing again.

Still ignoring Lister, Cat switched the ship's navicomp to autopilot and got to his feet. As he literally followed his nose, Cat quickly found himself leaving the cockpit.

"Cat, what is it?" Lister pressed. He quickly dashed over to the navicomp and checked to see if anything suspicions - such as a GELF ship or a 'swirly thing' - was approaching. But there was nothing except that space station on long range scanners, a planetoid and the _Red Dwarf_ some distance behind them. Other than that, they were alone in deep space. "Cat?" He tried again, this time gwtting a response.

"What is it, bud?" Cat yelled back, already some distance away. By now, Lister had left the cockpit and was following Cat's voice to try and find him.

"What can you smell 'cause there's nothing on the scanners?" Lister rounded a corner and came face to face with the Cat. He flinched fearfully until he realised that the person stood before him was, in fact, Cat, and immediately kicked himself for being so paranoid.

Cat's face was grim. "I dunno what it is, bud, but I do know that it's in here somewhere,"

Lister's chest tightened as Cat said that, and a rather pessimistic part of his brain told him, 'Why can't you ever go anywhere without the ship being invaded by some type of vicious lifeform that's intent on killing you?' Lister had to agree with it.

"What does it smell like?" He asked, trying to distract himself from the claustrophobia beginning to consume him - nothing made Lister more claustrophobic than being trapped on the same ship as something homicidal.

Oblivious to Lister's distress, Cat cocked his head to one side, looking incredibly puzzled. "I know what it is, but I can't place it." He said, his eyes closed.

"So you've smelled it before? "

A pause.

"Yeah." Cat finally replied.

Another pause.

"Well, where, Cat?" Lister practically shouted.

Cat opened his eyes, not noticing (or, more likely, noticing but choosing to ignore) the human's tense body language and manic eyes.

"I remember it now!" He announced, looking thrilled with himself. "I smelled it last time I was in the engine room!" Sudden realisation dawned on Cat, and his face fell in a way that, in any other situation, would have been almost comical.

He turned to look at Lister, who met his gaze, now visably shaking. Lister wanted to kill Cat for being so stupid, for not recognising what was happening, but he couldn't think, and only two words managed to leave his mouth.

"Fuel leak." He whispered, voice barely audiable, but Cat heard him.

"Is that bad?" Cat asked. Lister shook his head in disbelief.

And that was when the engine exploded.

Lister felt the explosion before he even heard it; he was flying through the air and hurtling towards a wall when he did, so loud it almost ruptured his ear drums.

The force of the explosion caused the ship to suddenly jerk to one side, and threw everything (including Lister and Cat) violently into the nearest wall. Cat smacked the back of his head into said wall, instantly getting himself knocked out. His now lifeless body slumped to the floor, but ended up hugging the wall as if magnetised to it, due to the spin the ship was now caught in. If you had looked at Blue Midget from the outside, it would have looked much like a manic dog chasing its flaming tail.

Lister, on the other hand, was more lucky - in the respect that he only landed heavily on his arm, making a sickening crunch as something snapped.

"Cat!" He gasped, struggling to his feet and letting himself lean into the wall for balance. Lister glanced downwards, and grimaced as he saw just what had happened to his arm. His left hand was turned ninety degrees in the wrong direction, two of his fingers contorted out of shape, apparently dislocated. Oddly, it didn't hurt, but Lister knew that, soon, he would be in agony.

He was reminded of his situation when, amazingly, Cat responded to his voice. Groaning, Cat slowly sat up as best as he could, having to hold his head in his hands to manage it. Lister crept towards the Cat, crouching down beside him.

"What does my hair look like, bud?" Cat asked fearfully, his voice very quiet. "Is it ruined?"

"It's fine," Lister said dismissively, much more worried about the blood dribbling down the back of Cat's yellow jacket. Telling Cat about this right now, however, wasn't part of Lister's plan, because the last thing he needed right now was a protest on how unfashionable blood was. "Come on, man, we really need to get to the cockpit."

After struggling to help Cat to his feet with only one working hand, Lister clung to the Cat as they made their slow, stumbling way to the cockpit, glad to have the Cat's feline sense of balance, as he was sure it was the only thing keeping them upright. Somehow, they made it, and Cat let himself collapse into the pilot's seat, confused to find himself gasping for breath.

His hands shaking, Cat grabbed the controls, realising exactly why the ship was out of control. "Autopilot's offline!"

Even though he was starting to get double vision, Cat managed to right the ship, and the spinning stopped. "What's the damage, Bud?" He asked the human, head hurting too much to turn and look at Lister.

Lister read the damage report aloud. "The engine's on fire, the sprinkler system's down and we're on emergency back up power." He paused for breath. "We're smegged, aren't we, man?"

Cat didn't even bother to reply, unable to think straight through his pounding headache. He knew that without an engine, they would be unable to travel back to _Red Dwarf _, and the fire was just going to carry on spreading. Lister was right: they were smegged.

Suddenly, Cat became aware of smoke filling his nostrils, smoke so thick that Lister began to choke. Spinning his chair around, Lister saw smoke filling the cockpit, and, if he focused hard, he even saw the crackle of flames back towards the engine room.

"I think we're gonna blow up, man!" He yelled over the whirr of broken machinery.

Another explosion rocked the ship, sparks spraying from the overhead lighting. They were plunged into darkness, only the blue alert bulb and the control panels giving off light.

Sensing that something bad was about to happen, Cat lurched to his feet, and, leaning heavily on the back of Lister's seat, moved away from his chair. Sure enough, only a few seconds later, his control panel blew up with such force that it threw him off his feet, and Lister, still facing backwards, out of his seat. They landed in a tangled heap, Lister letting out a muffled scream as he landed on his broken arm. Cat, though, was quiet, maybe too quiet...


End file.
